


A Band of Brothers

by Megchad22



Series: Brothers of the 173rd [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 173 Sky Soldiers, Found Family, M/M, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:35:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25274773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megchad22/pseuds/Megchad22
Summary: After the Rave, after everything Klaus is just so tired. So done with everything. If his family was here they could help. And then they were. And that changes everything.
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Brothers of the 173rd [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845772
Comments: 4
Kudos: 254





	A Band of Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a warning I love Ben, but I am not impressed with how he pushed Klaus into going to the Rave to find Luther. or how he acted when Klaus was stuck in the closet. I entirely get why he acts that way but in this one we do not see the Klaus and Ben show by design.

_ In the year 1968 there was an elite squad of the 173rd Brigade stationed in Vietnam. Made up of draftees with little to no family ties these 9 men quickly became known for a near perfect success rate. Among the top brass it is believed that had these Sky Soldiers survived, the war could have ended as much as 3 years earlier.  _

_ It would be discovered years later that this group was deliberately killed by the very military they served. The ambush may have mimicked a typical Viet Cong attack but not a single Vietnamese guerilla was involved. The grenade that had killed almost three quarters of the men had indeed been thrown by a member of the squad that had been with them as ‘backup’.  _

_ There are rumors that a single member of the Sky Soldiers survived. His screams and wails of grief were said to have echoed through the silence after the fighting had ended. Then that too faded as the man had vanished. Locals would look at the sight of the massacre and say that the Sky Soldiers’ souls lingered, waiting for their brother to come home.  _

Klaus Hargreeves could barely push past his exhaustion to see the glass cage at the end of the tunnel. Vanya was pounding on the other side of the glass, locked away in the darkness. As if from underwater he could hear Diego arguing with Luther. He thought he might have even spoken up a time or two in favor of letting Vanya out of the darkness. It all felt so surreal. 

He reaches for the heavy door. She needs to be let out. She shouldn’t be alone and in the dark. Caged and afraid. Luther’s hand shot out to grab his wrist, pulling him back and away. The bruises on his throat throbbed. The sound of helicopters, screams, and shots crested like a wave over him. 

It was too much, being here. Vanya’s eyes locked with his and he felt something deep inside shatter. He missed his brothers. He missed Dave.They would have helped him, they wouldn’t let Vanya be left in the dark. 

There was a sharp crack and suddenly he could hear Sarge. “...I want that door off its hinges, now. Katz, check on Lucky. Johnson, you are the least beat up, go explain to the young lady what is going on. Move it.”

His brothers. They were here. Aaron Johnson stepping through the door into the chamber holding Vanya. Marksman and Mudslide bickering about the best way to take the door down and if their ghostly ordinance would provide enough boom. Jake Martinez, John Smith, Frank Pierce were herding Ben toward Luther and Diego and making a barrier between them and Klaus. Spooky moved to take up the guard position, peering up the tunnel. That just left one person.

He felt a familiar hand on his cheek. Klaus turned his head to catch sight of the one person he loved more than anything. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Allison approaching, her eyes trailing over his brothers. But he couldn’t think about that now, not when his voice could not raise above a whisper, “Dave?”

Dave. It was Dave, smiled. “Oh, sweetheart.”

Klaus felt the sobs that were shaking him. He fell forward, into Dave’s waiting arms. “It is you. Oh...Dave...I tried. I tried to find you. I swear.”

Dave wrapped his arms around him, gave him the safety he had been missing for days and decades. “Shhh. Its alright, sunshine. I’m right here. We’ve been trying to get back to you for so long. I’m so proud of you.”

“I’m so tired, Dave. So tired. I just want to rest.”

Dave guided Klaus to look up until they were eye to eye, “I know sweetheart and I am so proud of you. Not much farther, love. Just this one mission and then you can rest. We’ll be with you. From now until the end.”

Klaus found himself nodding, he could do it. Take this last mission with his brothers by his side. 

Just then there was a strange fizzling sound and they all turned to look. Just in time to see the door crumble into dust. 

Mudslide whooped, “I told you we could do it.”

“An explosion would have been more satisfying” Marksman pouted, then sighed, “But I suppose killing the pretty girl we’re trying to save is counterproductive.”

Marksman grinned at Vanya and Klaus could almost see his face whole, without the burns and the shrapnel. Vanya, to her credit, only flinched slightly. 

Sarge rolled his good eye, “Stop scaring the lady. Sorry, Miss Vanya, we are a bit of a mess. But we will make sure you get to safety.”

**With Vanya, 5 minutes earlier**

Even though they couldn’t hear her she kept trying to tell her siblings how sorry she was. Kept hoping they would let her out. Please let her out. Diego, Klaus, and Luther were staring back. 

Klaus reached for the door and her heart leapt. He wanted to let her out, she could tell them she was sorry. Luther’s hand shot out and pulled Klaus so hard he stumbled away. Her hands slowed down its frantic pounding of their own accord. Diego moved toward Luther with murder in his stance. Klaus slumped to one side with blank eyes. Before her panic could return there was a flash from Klaus’s hands. Without warning the tunnel was full of people, soldiers. All torn up and dirty. 

One of the soldiers, an older man who seemed to be freshly missing an eye and the top corner of his skull, began gesturing at her. They all turned to listen to him then moved with synchronization that only came from trust. 

One of the soldiers moved to peer up the tunnel. He was just a few inches shorter than Diego and thinner than Klaus. The skin that she could see was pale white, most of the soldier was drenched in blood. When he turned she saw chunks had been ripped away from his back and burns that made her feel ill. 

A pair of soldiers moved toward her. The one on the left was almost as tall as Luther and as built as her brother once was. He was liberally peppered with metal and when he gestured emphatically at the door to her prison his shoulder shifted in a way that was not natural. The one on the right had burns that traveled from the stump of his right hand to cover half of her face. 

Three more soldiers were getting between Klaus and a ghost that must have been Ben, pushing Ben back toward Diego and Luther. From what she could see Ben tried to argue back but was rebuffed. One of the trio of soldiers was missing most of his torso between his ribcage and his hips. The second reached over to straighten the first every so often, he looked normal from the back but Vanya was sure there was something horrific on the front based on the look on Diego’s face. The third was holding his head to argue with Ben.

Yet another soldier approached Klaus, this one a handsome man with a bloody hole in his chest. The look on Klaus’s face just before he slumped into the soldier’s chest was so unfamiliar that it took her several long moments to recognize it. It was joy so strong that Vanya did not see the final soldier until he was standing next to her. 

He cleared his throat and she whirled around with a scream. This soldier looked the least dead, if it weren't for the blood leaking from the very crown of his head and the fact that he very much had not been here when she woke up she would have thought he was still. 

“We will have you out of here in just a few minutes, Ms. Vanya.” The soldier, his vest said Johnson, said with a smile. 

“What...What’s going on? Who are you?”

“Private Aaron Johnson, 173rd Sky Soldiers. At your service. We’re getting you out of here.”

Then the door crumbled and things began to blur. 

  
  
  


**Klaus**

The first stop was the living room. Johnson guided Vanya while Klaus leaned on Dave. It would not be long now. Just a few more hours and he can finally go home. He wanted so badly to go home. 

They found Five walking into the room from a solid wall. The words sounded like they were coming from under water, muffled. He didn’t need to understand right now. He trusted his brothers. 

Sarge’s voice cut through the miasma, loud and sharp “Miss Vanya said she had a concert to play at. She is going.”

It was nice of the Sarge to ensure his mission was completed. 

**Vanya**

The next thing Vany knows she is being escorted by Private Johnson to collect violin and get ready for her concert. She thinks she heard Luther saying she was dangerous but it seemed he could not go through the wall that was the 173rd. 

Just before she entered the theatre Private Johnson stopped her with a soft hand on her arm, “Lucky, uh Klaus, is probably going to make us invisible for this, you know so we don’t scare anyone. But we’re listening. You’re going to be great.”

Vanya blinked, taken aback, “You really think so?”

Private Johnson nodded, the movement strange with the blood leaking from the hole at the top of his head. “We’ve been waiting for this very long time, ma’am. We all know you will be fantastic.”

She stepped on stage, energy whirling around her. Her eyes scan the crowd and she sees her siblings looking up at her. Peace and joy fills her. They came. They came to see her. At the conductor's direction she stands and begins to play. It is not the solo she had practiced, the music that was written, practiced and played for hundreds of years. 

This was hers. This was what she was trying to find in a typewriter, a job, a boyfriend. She never noticed the white glow that enclosed her, dying her instrument and her clothing in brilliance. She never noticed the answering glow from Klaus in bright blue. She just let the music whirl around her. 

At the crescendo her eyes snap open to meet Klaus’s glowing blue ones. Their powers blended seamlessly. The music carried farther than it should have, her glowing music echoing and answering soothing. As beautiful sounds passed something strange happened. The ghostly dead became visible to everyone for the first time and began to heal, as they healed they also began to fade into peace. By the end of her solo the music had traveled across the world and there was not a single ghost. With the exception of Ben Hargreeves and the members of the 173rd. All others had at last moved on. At last given peace.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two minutes after midnight on April second the Hargreeves and the members of the 173rd were back at the Academy. They were in silence, some in shock and some waiting. Of them all, Klaus looked the worst. His skin was waxy and pale, his eyes were sunken. But he was smiling. Joy had spread across his face. He was nearly done. 

“One last piece of business.” He whispered. 

Dave smiled at him and pressed a kiss to his temple, even as he helped him stand. Vanya looked up at the movement. When their powers had connected, so had they and she understood better than half the room what was about to happen. 

She smiled sadly at him. He returned it, “You were right, when you wrote we were not family.” He murmured. There was no condemnation in his voice but several of the living Hargreeves still flinched. Vanya did not. 

“I wish we could have been.” She said at last.

Klaus shrugged his shoulders, “I found my family, you will too.”

Vanya grimaced, “Not in this house.”

Klaus shook his head, “No it would not be possible to build a family in this house. If you ask me you should tear down the entire thing. Maybe put up a park. Dad would have hated that.”

The shock of tonight must be affecting everyone more than they thought because not one of them seemed to cotton on to what was going on. Maybe that was why Ben didn’t move when Klaus’ glowing hand closed over his shoulder. “You told once that the worst thing about being dead was watching those close to you mess up what you would give anything for.” A grin that was frighteningly wide stretched across Klaus’s face. “I am giving this to you, because I don’t need it anymore. I am going home.”

A ball of pure light centered on Klaus’s chest and pulsing in time with his heart appeared then traveled up to his shoulder and down to where Klaus connected with Ben. It slipped from one to the other with little fanfare. As soon as the ball of light left his body, Klaus collapsed like a puppet with cut strings. The members of the 173rd vanished. 

Ben did not. Ben who was breathing, whose heart started pumping. Ben who began hyperventilating at the sight of the body at his feet. He dropped to his knees, feeling a sting for the first time in years. Ben reached a shaking hand to touch his brother, the brother he had seen dead twice in a week. Ben had not been able to cry since he died, but he did now. 

The soft thump of the body hitting the floor breaks the shock. Five reaches the body first, his eyes wild, almost feral. It’s Vanya that pulls him away from the body before he can hit it. She pulls him close as he bursts into tears, sobbing that he was supposed to save them all. Diego was cradling his brother’s body, noticing only then how thin he was, how scarred. Luther had pulled Allison close as if to shield her from the sight. Ben was still on his knees, looking sixteen and lost. 

Only Vanya was calm, consoling Five. With more control than anyone thought she had she gently lifted Klaus’s body to lay on the couch. 

Unseen by everyone Klaus stands and pulls Dave into a kiss to the cheers of his brothers. The hollows of his cheeks have filled in. His skin is healthy. He looks almost nothing like the broken body laying on the couch. The music for Vanya’s concert begins to play for them, leading them away from the mortal world and into peace. At last their final brother has returned and they can go home. 

In a bit Vanya would start to get them organized, gently directing a newly living Ben and a newly returned Five. She would take Klaus’s advice and build her family. She would move into a larger apartment, at first it would be just her Five and Ben but eventually Diego would be convinced to live with them as well. 

Ben would go on to being a psychologist. Specializing in domestic trauma. While he would go on to help many people he was never able to handle working with children. 

Five would go on to become an addiction counselor. It seemed like such a strange choice for the old man going through puberty but he admitted his own addiction to the apocalypse and how his math skills were a vehicle for that. His approach was so no nonsense yet non judgemental that he was one of the most successful in his career. 

Diego surprised everyone by becoming a paramedic. His need to save someone changing after the death of his junkie brother. 

Vanya herself would go onto minor fame as a violinist and composer. She insisted that every out of town performance that her family come with her. 

Eventually Luther would follow Allison West and build their own family. They would say that they would stay in touch but the two families would eventually only get in contact every few years. 

But for now they would mourn the brother that they never really had. 

**Author's Note:**

> Edit 7/19/2020: I added the unreliable narrator tag because neither klaus nor vanya are in any state of mind. Frankly both of the are about 3 steps into a breadown


End file.
